Abstract: This invention relates to an apparatus for grading food articles by building up portions based on at least one characteristic, e.g. number of food articles, or weight of food articles. A first conveyor conveys the articles along a closed-loop conveying path, where the conveyor has a number of article holders attached to the conveyor for holding and preserving the initial position of the food articles during the conveying. The exact position of the food articles in the article holders is determined. A processor in a combination with a removing means uses this exact position to control the releasing of the food articles from the article holders into pre-fixed locations the containers and in that way controls the location of the food articles in the containers.

Abstract: The invention relates to a gripper for a robotic arm which is specially designed for fresh food products. The invention also relates to a method, a device and a system which arranges food products fully automatically onto a conveyor, e.g. in-feed conveyor to an IQF freezer, or into a tray or a box. The gripper unit comprises penetration mechanism for penetrating into the articles that are to be picked up, thereby providing an engagement between the gripper unit and the articles while rearranging the positions of the articles, whereby the position of the penetration mechanism into the articles is operated in such a way that one end of the articles becomes at least partially freely hanging.

Abstract: This invention relates to an article distribution apparatus for distributing a stream of conveyed food articles from a conveyor conveying the food articles to one or more receiving stations, where two or more receiving arms are used for successively receiving and displacing the food articles from the conveyor to the one or more receiving stations. In a receiving position the first receiving arm is arranged at the end of the conveyor and forms an extension of the conveyor and the conveying path of the food articles for receiving one or more of the food articles. After receiving one or more food articles from the conveyor the first receiving arm is moved from the receiving position to the one or more receiving stations, the receiving position subsequently being replaced by the second receiving arm for receiving one or more of the subsequent food articles.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus for grading food articles based on at least one characteristic of the food articles. The grading comprises building up portions of the food articles in containers or grading the food articles onto one or more receiving areas, wherein the arrangement of the food articles during the grading is preserved. According to the invention, determining means determines one or more characteristic parameters indicating the characteristics of the food articles. A first conveyor conveys the food articles along a closed-loop conveying path, where the conveyor comprising a number of article holders is attached to the conveyor for holding the food articles during the conveying along the closed-loop conveying path. An arranging means arranges the food articles onto the article holders, where the article holders preserve the arrangement of the food articles in the article holders during the conveying.